We find out why international managers and expatriates feel that HR needs to get a grip on managing their international careers and what HR can do about it.

Businesses are eager to promote international experience for their employees. Employers enthusiastically tout the benefits and skills gained from a workforce steeped in frequent travel, expatriate assignments and cross-culture experiences. But while businesses continue to build intercultural highways by sending their workforce abroad, expats and international managers are lamenting the breakdown in communication along the way.
 
Capitalise on cross-cultural knowledge

"I regret that there's knowledge within my company and that knowledge isn't identified and shared between people," said Jerome Fiere, international project manager for Veolia Transport. "They know that people work internationally, but they don't know us."

Part of the problem is that though all expatriates have international knowledge, not all employees with international knowledge are expatriates.
 

Keep links with your global workers and encourage them to share knowledge.

Fiere may be a French citizen based in Paris, but his job is hardly local. His frequent business trips can cost him ten hours of travel in a day, but also give him the opportunity to culture hop on a daily basis. He says, however, there has been little opportunity to share his knowledge with his HR department.

"HR people have spent a lot of time on expatriation, forgetting that there are a lot of international managers, who even if they're not expatriates, have to live with different cultures," Fiere said.

Limited contact between HR management and those they manage mean both parties can miss the chance to capitalise on employees' cross-cultural knowledge.

This disconnect can prevent international employees from knowing about all the opportunities available to them while fulfilling an international post, and can consequently rob companies of the skills those employees can provide.

International employees say they have little complaint with the logistical services that HR typically provides them in the beginning of an assignment.
 
"There wasn't a lot of communication about the process, but it all got done," Jim Duffy said about establishing himself abroad. The data warehouse architect at BNP Paribas said the bank took care of his visa paperwork, his taxes and even provided him with a relocation agent to find him an apartment in Paris.

He described these services as invaluable, but says that since then, he's had little contact with his HR department. "Once I moved over here and began getting paid, that was it," Duffy said.

"I'm three months into a three year contract and I'm already considering what I'll do at the end of that. At the end of my contract, there's a big question mark," he said.

Though professionals pursuing international careers rarely expect their employers to hold their hands as they cross borders, the lack of continued support and interest by their management can be disconcerting.

Centralise HR programmes

Decentralisation between international HR offices compounds the complications from lack of communication.

Patricia Nagy, who handles international photo rights at a large publishing company in Paris, had to start from scratch when she left her post in New York for a new position abroad at the same company. "The New York office had no link with the Paris office," she said. "There was no seniority link, and I had to quit and get hired again with a new probation period," she said. 

Because of this lack of communication between HR departments, Nagy was taken on under a local contract and wasn't considered an official expatriate. Because of this, she said it was assumed she understood the ins and outs of a French workplace and she missed opportunities to take advantage of benefits her company offered.

"Management should be more sensitive to people in this situation," she said. "Don't take for granted that we need more special attention in the beginning, that we don't how systems and policies work. It's nice to go over things and have someone ask you, ‘do you have any questions?'" Nagy said. 

Jennifer Connell, manager of consulting services for Weichert Relocation Resources, said that as companies go global, it is important to centralise their HR programs globally.

"Companies can create seven to eight tiers of policies that can move from any country to any other country," she said.

This centralisation is important, she said, "for consistency of benefits and so employees can view benefits as equitable, as otherwise benefits may not be as rich in a new country as what the employee is used to," she said. 

Though this centralisation sounds daunting, companies can start with a simple website, or another central place to view benefits and access policies. "This allows companies themselves to budget and forecast programs because all information is held centrally," Connell said.

Payroll and benefit processing often leaves HR departments with little time to properly identify and genuinely communicate with their international workers. Connell suggests outsourcing compensation and other technical aspects of HR to concentrate fully on properly identifying and utilising the employee skills that are currently taken for granted.

An important part of this process is to properly identify international workers within the company. "We have developed knowledge and experience and that's something that should be more valorised within the company," Fiere explained.

Formalise international career management

Most employees are happy to share their skills and experience with HR departments, but are rarely asked to. This lack of communication leads to informational and organisational losses within the company and often resentment from international workers who are asked to gain international experience but have little opportunity to share what they have learned.

This becomes a greater problem as international workers repatriate or change positions within a company.

"If they haven't been tracked closely, they're not coming back to an anticipated role," said Dr. Noeleen Doherty, from the Centre for Research and Management of Expatriation at the Cranfield School of Management.

This difference in roles can throw many employees, leaving them dissatisfied. This creates a career wobble that may lead workers to leave their parent companies after assignments, taking their skills with them.

"Organisations must make sure to identify the purpose of an assignment and therefore what types of skills will be developed," Doherty said. HR departments should continually track the performance of their employees, she said, "through hard data, career questionnaires and information from individuals and subordinates about the employee's performance."

Gain international experience

In addition, international exposure for HR managers can go a long way to close this communication gap, said several of expatriates and international managers. An HR manager who understands the difficulties and rewards of an international assignment is more likely to take advantage of the skills and knowledge of others who share the same experience.

But more fundamentally, "there is a shift in the culture of HR people that has to be done," Fiere said.

"It can be done very easily if HR and international managers take an opportunity to sit together and exchange views on our day to day life.
 
"It's as simple as that," he said.

May 2006

Victoria Fine is a freelance writer based in Paris.

Subject: HR and international career management, policies for international working